Approximately 10,000 BC: Total human population of the Americas may number around 10,000-30,000; virtually every human settlement in the world, both temporary and permanent, includes the presence of domesticated dogs

AUTHOR'S NOTE: I believe the reporter of the above article made a typographical error in their statement referring to human population for the entire Earth being only 10,000 to 30,000 around 10,000 BC. Instead, I think she was referring to the estimates of population for just the Americas themselves, rather than the world. The context of her statement deals with the numbers of people threatening the megafauna in the Americas with extinction during this period, and cites estimates for both-- but the animal numbers appear to be for only American populations while the human numbers are given as planet-wide. Thus, the statement as typed seems incongruous. It would make better sense if the human number refers to only populations in the Americas, in order to better relate them to animal numbers on the continents of the time. Plus, in another article by the same writer, a figure of under ten million is given for world population in 8,000 BC-- only 2,000 years later from the 10,000 to 30,000 figures given above. ("A positive perspective on population growth" by Mitzi Perdue, Scripps Howard News Service, Nando Media, http://www.nandotimes.com, September 28, 1999). This too would seem to indicate at least one of these numbers is off.

For further comparisons, here is a sequential series of human population estimates over time for various regions:

* 11,000 to 18,000 worldwide around 187,000 BC from "Study Alters Time Line for the Splitting of Human Populations" By NICHOLAS WADE, March 16, 1999, The New York Times

* 15,000 to 40,000 worldwide about 69,000 BC from "Ancient 'volcanic winter' tied to rapid genetic divergence in humans", News From the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, September 1998, News Bureau
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
807 S. Wright St., Suite 520 East
Champaign, IL 61820-6219, found on or about 9-10-98, and "History Of Humans And Great Apes Strikingly Different"
University Science, 27-Apr-1999, UniSci Science and Research News, http://unisci.com

* 11,000 to 40,000 worldwide around 48,000 BC from "Study Alters Time Line for the Splitting of Human Populations" By NICHOLAS WADE, March 16, 1999, The New York Times and "Ancient 'volcanic winter' tied to rapid genetic divergence in humans", News From the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, September 1998, News Bureau
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
807 S. Wright St., Suite 520 East
Champaign, IL 61820-6219, found on or about 9-10-98

* 200 million for the world around 1 AD from page 553, Paleontology: The History of Life, The World Almanac and Book of Facts 1996, World Almanac Books

* One million for the single city of Angkor Cambodia in 1,100 AD from Unraveling History's Mysteries By Joseph B. Verrengia
The Associated Press
Aug. 30, 1999, ABC News Internet Ventures, http://www.abcnews.go.com/

* 15,000 for the single city of Cahokia in the vicinity of Collinsville, Illnois, USA in 1,300 AD from Unraveling History's Mysteries By Joseph B. Verrengia
The Associated Press
Aug. 30, 1999, ABC News Internet Ventures, http://www.abcnews.go.com/

* 30-40 million for the Americas around 1,492 AD from HOW MANY MIGRATIONS WERE THERE? From Science Frontiers Digest of Scientific Anomalies ["http://www.knowledge.co.uk/frontiers/"] #51, MAY-JUN 1987 by William R. Corliss, citing Merritt Ruhlin; "Voices from the Past," Natural History, 96:6, March 1987

* One billion for the world in 1804 AD from 6 billionth Earthling was born today By Margot Higgins, ENN Daily News -- 10/12/1999, Environmental News Network, http://www.enn.com/

Thus, I have taken the liberty of using the 10,000-30,000 figure for only the Americas here, rather than the entire globe, in 10,000 BC. END NOTE

Keep in mind that rising sea levels worldwide over the past 5000 years may have resulted in such forced dislocations of large populations from established communities (making them more vulnerable to disease, starvation, predation, and stronger inland/higher altitude tribes) as to significantly reduce the world population as one result.

This environment may also have strongly encouraged humanity to drive and expand deeper inland on many continents too-- perhaps laying the groundwork for the mass extinctions of the megafauna in the Americas as one consequence.